Public Private Partnership (PPP): Comparative Analysis of the Legal and Institutional Framework in Romania, Greece, Italy and Portugal.

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) policies and projects have diffused across Europe and public authorities seem increasingly to be involving the private sector in financing, building and operating new infrastructures. The global and rapidly growing interest in partnerships comes out of the financial crisis which exerts a strong pressure on public finances around the world, having negative effects on the development of necessary infrastructure in different areas. Many countries have adopted the public-private partnership (PPP) model as a means of implementing large-scale infrastructure projects and have launched dedicated PPP units to support the uptake of PPPs. As a result, a wide divergence in national PPP aproaches can be noticed but the lack of processes, procedures an enabling institutions, i.e "governance", is the main barrier to extending their use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]